The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. In the course of several weeks, the US president began displaying everyone his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently a study forecast his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – genuinely, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the presidential residence to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the Earth' to 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader try to upend the old idea of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of love into a figure of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this change developed more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre of Americans could have minimal awareness about him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of great price in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically definitely not the account of an authoritative monarch appearing; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid secret police. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for others, especially for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a method to instruct the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and straightforward truth that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor is what has always made Christianity something of a scandalous religion: attractive to the masses, but owing to its natural unconventionality demanding to be restrained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to observe the determined opposition to Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to persist with it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, through connection to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it mean pretending the worst of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it represents both meekness and belief, a blend that serious national faithful ought to accept.
